hello, fellow smoke brothers!!!!

[specialk]

Just a little about me, I"m a Michigan boy most of my life. My wife & I just moved down to sw Florida. I currently own a Smoke Hollow gas unit & am doing a 13lb pork butt as I write. I love to cook & am learning the art of smoking meat. I have had good sucess so far, but still need a little help now& then. So with that said... how long should I smoke my 13 lb butt??
Thanks my brothers!
Special K

 

[monty]

Heya, specialk!

Welcome aboard and glad you found us! As for your butt, wow, 13 lbs! Smoking a pork butt mostly relies on the internal temp of the thickest part of the cut and not next to the bone!

As a general rule of thumb one can allow 1 1/2 hours per pound at about 225F for smoke cooking a butt but there is always the plateau thing to consider in such a large piece! Are you cooking a butt or a full Boston butt?

Please review the suibject matter under the Pork section and that will hopefully clear up any questions you might have! If questions remain please feel free to post them in the appropriate section. We LOVE to help and always welcome new members!
Cheers!

 

[Dutch]

Welcome to SMF 'K, are you ready to become a Hurricane fan? :D

Figure at minimum an hour and a half per pound at 225-230 *. But then you have to figure in the "plateau" that stage in the smoke process (about 165*) where your thermo just kind of stops or even drop a bit in temp. DO NOT crank up the heat-just leave things as they are. This is where the accumulated heat begins to break down the connective tissues and makes the butt tender. Some like to wrap the butt in a double layer of heavy duty aluminum foil at this stage and return the butt to the smoker. Adding a liquid at this point such as apple juice or apple juice/adult beverage of choice-some Uncle Jack's or Cousin Jim's finest will help keep things moist and to some speeds the cook time a bit. Smoke the butt to 180-185 * for slicing or to 190-200* for pulling. Wrapping the butt in several layers of old towels and place into a blanket lined cooler will keep things hot for around 4 hours if the butt gets done before your ready to eat.

Looks like Sir Monty beat me at the post. :D But do check out the Pork Forum-there is a lot of good tips there.

 

[meowey]

Welcome!!

Pork butts rule!

Meowey

 

[cajunsmoker]

Hey specialk,

A 13# butt is going to take an awful long time to cook. 19.5 hours if we go by the 1.5 hrs per # theory. If I had a butt that big I would cut it in half and make 2 - 6.5# butts instead. I usually don't endorse cutting meat into smaller portions, but a 20 hour smoke could easily become unmanageable. :(

 

[larry maddock]

yo y'all,
13 # sounds more like a whole shoulder.
if the butt is that big,
i want dibs on the hocks and feet.

 

[smokemack]

Welcome to site K. Glad you're here. How did the pork turn out? That must have been a looooong smoke. Keep us posted; send pictures so those of us stuck at work have something to day dream about... Go 'Canes!!

 

[icemn62]

Not to be funny, but that butt will take as long as it wants to take. If you are smoking it, the 1.5 hour rule is good to calculate on, but that bad boy is going to stall/sleep/stop it will generally make you angry. Stick with it, and let it do its thing. Grab some cold ones, and resist the urge to add more heat to the equation.

Hope things came out okay, and you made good food. Any chance of a picture? Let us know how things came out.